Palliative Care in Saudi Arabia

The palliative care service started at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over a decade ago by Dr. Isbister is slowly expanding. Excellent facilities for investigations and curative treatment are available in the hospital, and these are useful when supportive facilities are needed. Nevertheless, there are problems. Most of the staff is western, and this is a hindrance when psychosocial and spiritual support is needed by Saudi patients. Patients have poor facilities for follow-up in between outpatient visits every month. The team has overcome the problem of poor availability of opioids, but these essential drugs are not available to the patients at the national level. Educational and research services have begun.     

Professional Development of Nursing in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To describe the development of nursing in Saudi Arabia and to recommend further directions for development of professional nursing in that country.
Organizing Construct: A comprehensive needs assessment was performed in 1996 by an onsite consultant to: (a) evaluate the existing nursing system at the ministry, regional, and hospital levels, (b) describe the functional interrelationships of a nursing division within the Ministry of Health, and (c) prepare a work plan outlining the program elements that a nursing division could address to foster high-quality health care in the public sector.
Methods: The needs assessment was conducted through direct observation, interviews, and review of existing documents in the Ministry of Health and representative hospitals, health centers, and health institutes. Data were collected about six factors as they pertained to the Ministry of Health Nursing Services: (a) key organizational and managerial activities, (b) the external environment, (c) the social system, (d) employees, (e) nursing services and research, and (f) formal organizational arrangements.
Findings and Conclusions: The data showed a young country and an equally young nursing profession struggling to meet the needs of a growing population. The highest priority for the advancement of nursing in Saudi Arabia is the creation of a kingdom-wide system of nurse regulation. Pressing needs include regulation of professional standards, licensure of all nurses practicing in the Kingdom, accreditation of educational programs, and formation of a national nurses association.     

Health care and nursing in Saudi Arabia

Aim:  This paper reviews healthcare provision in Saudi Arabia and the development of nursing together with its current challenges.
Background:  Health care in Saudi Arabia is developing fast with multiple governmental and independent service providers. Economic growth has impacted upon health needs through population and health behaviour change. The development of the indigenous nursing workforce has been slow resulting in much nursing care being delivered by migrant nurses.
Conclusion:  There is a need to increase the proportion of indigenous nurses so that culturally appropriate holistic care can be delivered. Without shared culture and language, it will be difficult to deliver effective health education within nursing care to Saudis.     

An employee health service in Saudi Arabia

Health services for employees of this 500-bed tertiary care hospital include programs normally available to employees at hospitals in the United States. These programs include primary care, health promotion, health surveillance, and pre-employment health screening. The most pervasive influence on the health care provided is Islam. Saudi Arabia is a conservative Muslim country and all health care activities must be accomplished within the religious and cultural norms of the country. Communicable diseases endemic to this part of the world are of special concern in employee health. Special programs are in place for the prevention and control of tuberculosis, hepatitis B, brucellosis, ophthalmic chlamydia, malaria, and meningococcal disease.     

Antimicrobial resistance among Gram-positive pathogens in Saudi Arabia

Several species of Gram-positive cocci are major nosocomial or community pathogens associated with morbidity and mortality. Here, we review the antimicrobial resistance among these pathogens in Saudi Arabia. In the last decades, antimicrobial resistance has increased among Staphylococcus aureus in the Kingdom with a growing prevalence of both nosocomial and community methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates. As yet, no vancomycin-resistant MRSA have been reported, although isolates with reduced susceptibility to the drug have been noted. Currently, the prevalence of vancomycin-resistant entrococci (VRE) is low; however, VRE has been described in the Kingdom as well as Enterococcus faecalis and E. faecium isolates with high-level resistance to penicillin, sulfamethoxazole, macrolides, tetracycline, and aminoglycosides. In recent decades, the prevalence and rate of penicillin resistance and non-susceptibility among Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates have increased in Saudi Arabia. The organism remains, however, susceptible to other beta-lactams and to quinolones. On the other hand, resistance to co-trimoxazole and tetracyclines is high and resistance to macrolides is on the increase.     

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in rural Saudi Arabia

Several studies have clearly shown the impact of modernization on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in susceptible communities. Saudi Arabia has faced a rapid development program over the last two decades. In a recent study, we found a high prevalence of diabetes mellitus in urban Saudi Arabia. A total of 5222 rural subjects of both sexes were involved in a study of the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Random capillary blood glucose, body weight and height, and income were recorded. The results showed an overall prevalence of 4.3%. There was a rise of prevalence with age and higher-income groups. Prevalence also differed with sex. The overall prevalence in women (5.9%) was twice that for men (2.9%; P less than .001). Obesity occurred in 41.2% of our diabetic subjects compared to 29.3% in nondiabetic subjects (P less than .001). Multiple logistic regression analysis with body mass index (BMI) as the dependent variable showed that sex and income status were significant factors (P less than .0001 and P less than .04, respectively). When blood glucose was fixed as the dependent variable, the analysis showed that age, income, and BMI were significant factors (P less than .004, P less than .0001, and P less than .045, respectively).     

Development of nurse education in Saudi Arabia,Jordan and Ghana: From undergraduate to doctoral programmes

Doctoral programmes in nursing have a long history in the US where traditional research based PhDs and more clinically based doctoral programmes are common. In the rest of the world PhDs are better accepted though professional doctorates with a thesis component are common in the UK. In countries with newly established or planned doctoral programmes in nursing the research PhD seems the degree of choice. Here we discuss developments in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Ghana.This study used official documents, strategic plans, curriculum developments and other documentary evidence from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Ghana. We compared doctoral programmes and development with other countries by reference to the literature.We offer the example of public health and non-communicable diseases in particular as one area where doctorally trained nurses applying international standards in collaboration internationally may be of benefit.